You have quarters laid out in the following pattern on the left and you want to move quarters to form the pattern on the right.

  Q      Q Q
 Q Q    Q   Q
Q Q Q    Q Q

Before| |After

The only rule is you must slide a coin without moving any others, such that the coin's ending location touches two other quarters. This means the following moves are illegal:

 A 1     Moving C to 1    
B C D 2  Moving B to 2  
 E F 

What is the shortest solution?

     A                             A   D                     A   D

   B   C              -->    B   C            -->    B         C 

D   E   F                        E    F                      E   F            

 

This is assuming there is some space in between the quarters so they aren't tightly packed.  If they are tightly packed then a 5 move solution is possible (i think).

Posted by DuCk on 2004-04-01 07:20:25